The use of solidification technology and solid block detergents in institutional and industrial operations was pioneered in the SOLID POWER® brand technology claimed in Femholz et al., U.S. Reissue Pat. Nos. 32,762 and 32,818. Additionally, sodium carbonate hydrate cast solid products using substantially hydrated sodium carbonate materials was disclosed in Heile et al., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,595,520 and 4,680,134.
In more recent years, attention has been directed to producing highly effective detergent materials from less caustic materials such as soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate. Early work in developing the sodium carbonate based detergents found that sodium carbonate hydrate-based materials often swelled, cracked or crumbled after solidification (i.e., were dimensionally unstable as a result of kinetic and/or thermodynamic instability). Such swelling can interfere with packaging, dispensing, and use. The dimensional instability of the solid materials relates to the unstable nature of various hydrate forms prepared in manufacturing the sodium carbonate solid materials. Early products made with hydrated sodium carbonate typically comprised of anhydrous, a one mole hydrate, a seven mole hydrate, a ten mole hydrate or more mixtures thereof.
However, after the product had been manufactured and stored at ambient temperatures, the hydration state of the initial product was found to shift between hydrate forms, e.g., one, seven, and ten mole hydrates, resulting in dimensional instability of the product. In these conventional solid form compositions, changes in water content and temperature lead to structural and dimensional change, which may lead to a failure of the solid form, resulting in problems such as the inability of the solid form to fit into dispensers for use.
It was found, disclosed, and claimed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,258,765, 6,156,715, 6,150,324, and 6,177,392, that a solid block functional material could be made using a binding agent that includes a carbonate salt, an organic acetate, such as an aminocarboxylate, or phosphonate component and water.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the claimed invention to provide solid detergent compositions that exhibit exceptional dimensional stability, including kinetic and/or thermodynamic stability.